It grew!

TMS (I think that's our new nickname) were out of town on the long weekend, so it's been 2 weeks since we've seen the house. What a lot can happen when the framing starts!

We pulled up to a real house!



The picture above shows the basement and main floor. The second story (on our side only) is on its way soon.

We were able to take a stroll through all the rooms on the main floor, and show Sheliza what each box was going to end up being. Some spaces seemed a lot larger than we expected, and some others seemed smaller. It will be fascinating to see this develop.


In the meantime, Sheliza was just thrilled to be able to walk THROUGH walls...

We then climbed the ladder to the second floor (where all of our rooms will be). There was nothing there yet but floor, but WOW it's higher than the old house!

Landscaping talks are scheduled to start soon, but in the meantime, Sheliza's enjoying the mountains of sand and gravel!

BIG Beams Arrive

The BIG beams arrived on Tuesday, May 25th along with the TJI's for the second floor. More walls on the main floor also went up. Landscapers came to discuss the massive job ahead and decisions were made: keep the BIG window in the master bedroom, stucco and either cedar coloured Hardie plank or just cedar. Also, order or windows is for black exterior and beige interior on the frames.


The biggest of the big ones...The living room wall is raised and put in place around the fireplace. We thank Dick's Lumber for letting us use their crane while it was on site.

Taking Shape

Slowly it comes together and as each wall goes up you get a much clearer sense of what was only in your mind and on paper. Some surprises - like the window in our bedroom is SO BIG. Shots taken on Saturday May 22 - TJI's for 2nd floor arrive on Tuesday.

Looking south into Mike & Donna's Master bedroom...big window!

Looking north from Mike & Donna's master bedroom. Fireplace on left, dinning and kitchen at back.
From the front door - the foyer and then looking through the door to Tanya, Muniz & Sheliza's (TMS's) side.


TMS's side looking from their family/living area to their back door with dinning on the right and kitchen area on the left.

The back yard view from TMS's kitchen sink. Big window with great view to watch the "kids".



The overview from the mountain in the back yard...getting there.

1st Wall goes UP - yeah!

The first wall - main floor - on Tanya and Muniz's side goes up. What an erection team - we did all 45 feet at once.

The third wall was that in the dinning and kitchen area. Myrle is holding and pushing up his end.
...and all smiles from Mike and Myrle. The first side (east side) of the house is up and looking really good. We start to get a sense of reality versus what is on paper. It is amazing how many times the perception of 15 feet can change - from wow it is large to humm... - seems smaller than I thought it would be.

Clean-up

On Mother's Day, the whole crew (i.e. those of us who aren't there daily) ventured out to see the progress on our new house. Sheliza took some pumpkin plants, and Grandpa helped her find a safe spot for them waaay in the back of the yard. The hope is that they'll grow into something special in time for Hallowe'en. How cool to have a Jack 'O Lantern from a pumpkin you grew youself!!!

Sheliza and Grandma have big plans for a vegetable garden, once we actually move in and can tend it. Sheliza wants to grow corn, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, blueberries (actually frozen blueberries), and more. She also wants to plant a watermelon tree. I suggested it might hurt if the watermelons got ripe and fell on her head. She replied, "but if they grow on the ground, they'll get stepped on, so I think they should be on a tree." Can't argue with logic like that!

At the site, Sheliza found a few ways to make herself useful. While the "big girls" collected scraps of used lumber, Sheliza took their pile and tossed the pieces, one by one, down the hill to the garbage pile. She pretended she was feeding the ducks, and hey - for once, throwing stuff was actually encouraged!

When she was finished, she helped Daddy patrol for more scraps, then she helped Grandpa test out the crawl space. She fits perfectly, by the way, so she needs to stop growing so that she can be our yearly fetcher-of-christmas-decorations!

After a hot day's work, she aired out her feet... silly thing!

It was very cool to be able to stand where our new back door will be, and look out at the back yard. Even more exciting in a few weeks, when we can walk through the framing of the rooms!!!

Jack Walls...

May 3 - May 10 was taken with getting the Jack Walls up and the TJI joists in place. Important as again we ensure everything is level. We also took in some more gravel. The weather has been good to us - we hope for more sun.



Surjit, whose team from Hans Excavating did such a tremendous job for us talk about the landscaping work ahead.


Myrle, who leads our framing crew< commands the scene as Dick's delivers the TJI's for the first (Main) floor base. Below, the TJI's are hoisted onto the crawl space jack walls.